In the telecommunications industry, modules having switching jacks for performing inter-connect and cross-connect functions are well known. An example of such is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,104 to Willams et al dated Mar. 21, 1989. With reference to FIG. 5 of the '104 Patent, two jacks 144 are mounted in the interior of a housing and permanently connected to cables 82, 84, 86, 88 which extend rearwardly from the jacks to connectors 74, 76, 78, 80 on a rear panel of the module housing.
The jacks used in inter-connect and cross-connect modules are well known switching jacks. In addition to those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,104, switching coax jacks are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,968 to Burroughs dated Jun. 7, 1988, U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,491 to Louwagie et al dated Sep. 20, 1994 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,246,378 to the Seiceanu dated Sep. 21, 1993. Both of the '491 and '378 patents teach jack modules which include not only switching components but monitor ports for permitting monitoring functions without signal interruption.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,062 to Burroughs, a jack module 10 is received by a chassis 12. Jack module 10 mates with a rear interface 400. Rear interface 400 includes conductors 42, 43 which are electrically connected when a jack module 10 is not inserted within chassis 12.
Switching coax jacks are known which include center conductors which are divided into front and rear portions as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,885,096 to Ogren. The rear portions include movable springs to separate the rear portions 50, 52 from the front portions 42, 44. A V-shaped switching spring 70 connects the rear portions. Levers 90, 92 push the rear portions out of connection with the switching spring and into connection with the front portions upon insertion of plugs into forward ports of the jack.
Commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/808,086 concerns a module 10 with two removable front switching jacks 14, 14′. This allows replacement of the switching jacks, rather than the entire jack module to allow for upgrades for the switching jack or replacement of the jack in the event of failure of any one of the two switching jacks. Also, as telecommunications facilities are being developed, it is desirable to pre-cable and install modules without the need for having switching jacks present during the cabling. Then, when use of the module is desired including its switching jack function, the individual switching jacks can be added.
Typical switching jacks often include one or more resistors. To ensure the integrity of jacks, it is desirable to test the resistors after assembly of the jacks to insure that the resistors provide a predetermined amount of resistance. In the prior art, testing has been performed by manually inserting plugs into the jacks, and then testing the resistance provided by each of the resistors.